NEC's new 4-way fault tolerant server is being positioned as the ideal system for enterprises looking to run multiple apps from a single server. It offers instantaneous fail-over, advanced monitoring, and no single point of failure.

Because of its high availability, the NEC Express5800/340Hb is "the ideal solution for server consolidation for enterprises worried about system failure," Brad Lightner, director of product and solution integration for NEC Solutions Group, told ServerWatch. The server is being marketed to data centers looking to reduce server room sprawl by consolidating their hardware but are concerned about having all their eggs in one basket.

Other environments in the NEC Express5800/340Hb sweet spot are data centers running large applications that require more than a simple dual processor server and systems running multiple operating system application stacks on Microsoft's Virtual Server software.

NEC is particularly banking on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 customers to chose its fault-tolerant servers over those of other vendors, like IBM and HP.

NEC is claiming an average of five minutes of downtime per year for the Express5800/340Hb, Lightner said. The server's blade server architecture enables this: It separates processing/memory and I/O into separate hot-swappable modules with dual-redundancy and lockstep technology to eliminate single points of failure. Should one component fail, the server switches over to its redundant counterpart while the system remains fully operational. Thus, no loss of data or performance. The malfunctioning component can then be taken out and replaced without taking the server offline.